How Long Was Forever?
by Moonlit Ballad
Summary: A How Long is Forever rewrite, set only ten years in the future. Someone drives the Titans to reunite, but with the appearance of one villain and another they'd hoped they never see again, this may be harder than expected.


_R&R please. This is just kinda my version of the episode "How Long is Forever?", only it's set only ten years in the future, with my own little plot and a sub-plot or two thrown in. Enjoy! Oh, and if a lot of things don't make sense, all will be explained in later chapters._

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_Livid emerald eyes, narrowed to green crescent-moons, glowed furiously behind a curtain of bouncy ruby bangs. The girl surged forward, moving as swift as her unearthly powers of flight could go, toward the iron-clad madman known as Warp standing directly in front of the shimmering portal, awaiting entry. Lost in uncharacteristic rage, she didn't notice how dangerously close she was to the portal until she had already passed through it. Robin could only watch helplessly as his best friend disappeared into the endless abyss of swirling light._

"STARFIRE!"

Robin awoke with a start, face drenched in a thick layer of sweat, the warmest sprouting from under his eyes. He violently yanked his sheets off of his body, glaring around at his murky room. His breathing was ragged and heavy, as if he'd just run a marathon, and his weary, unmasked eyes lay in the shadow of a mat of thick, disheveled black hair. Gathering his bearings, he pushed himself forthright and his feet fell upon uncarpeted floor, the bitter iciness of the apartment room chilling him to the bone. Robin stared at his dismal residence before berating himself.

He was no longer Robin. He wasn't even Nightwing, not anymore. He was just Richard Grayson; not a superhero, but a basic, average, less well-off Jump City citizen.

Against his own will, he thought back to the Titans, or the former Titans, anyway. Barely a year after Starfire's mysterious and tragic disappearance through Warp's timescape, Robin could have already seen the team falling apart. Raven, by that time, had been spending so much time in her room that they'd have been lucky to see her once a week, and eventually a month. Robin even suspected that, at times, she hadn't even been there. Then, one morning, she'd come downstairs and announced that she was leaving. And, just like that, she'd walked out, without an explanation. They'd never heard from her again.

After that, the three remaining residents tried to stay together as long as they could. But with two of their strongest team members gone, not to mention two of their best friends, the fabric of the once-glorious team began unraveling completely. Beast Boy and Cyborg got into wild shouting matches more frequently than ever before, and Robin lacked the motivation and the will to break them up all day, every day. Finally, Cyborg had had enough and decided to quit the team, for _real_ this time, and Robin had dissolved it completely shortly after. Some time later, he'd heard rumors that Cyborg had found a way to become fully human again and moved back to his hometown with his grandparents, finishing high school and most likely college. Beast Boy supposedly had moved back to Africa to help with an animal research project.

Richard almost snorted. Research project. How unlike Beast Boy.

The shadiest, however, was Raven's whereabouts. He'd actually heard at one time that she'd become so desperate to the point of selling herself over completely.

Richard almost snorted again, out of partial amusement and disbelief. That was even more improbable than the Beast Boy rumors.

He himself had stayed in Jump City, fighting the occasional crime as the dark avenger, Nightwing. But it seemed as though as the team disbanded, the crime subsequentially dwindled. Slade had mysteriously been found stoned to death outside an abandoned chemical plant. The perpetrator was said to have been a young but powerful girl of barely 15, but she was never heard from. Other, more minor threats such as H.I.V.E., Overload, Plasmus, and Cinderblock had pretty much settled down after hearing the alarming news of what had happened to Slade. With no crime left to fight aside from the occasional street fight or maybe even a mugging once in a while, Nightwing found himself out of business. No one wanted to pay for someone who wasn't doing much for them. So, eventually, he too had to give up his life of fighting crime and become just an average civilian. He'd decided just to simply keep his birth name of Richard Grayson.

Richard's eyes slowly scanned over his dank, dreary home, if you could call it thatThe peeling wallpaper, the chilly, cemented floor, the few pieces of furniture that pathetically attempted to decorate the thirteenth room on the eight floor of the old city apartment. Life hadn't exactly been easy for him after giving up crime-fighting. Although exceedingly intelligent he was, more intelligent and wise than most anyone his age with his Batman-given knowledge and skills, in this city, it was impossible to get a high-paying job without a college degree, and he didn't even have a high school diploma. He figured he could probably have gotten away without one, but that would be much too suspicious. He couldn't afford to have someone, _anyone_, know that he was indeed Robin. Not having the money to attend either, he settled for a job at the local supermarket, scarcely earning minimum wage.

Richard felt his vision haze as he glared at what his life had become. Pale, worn brown irises fell upon a small desk in the corner. Without another thought, he pushed himself off of his creaky old mattress and stumbled toward it, yanking open the small hidden drawer embedded within it, searching for one of the few prized things that he himself still owned. When his hand met a cool metal surface, he grasped the object carefully and gently, handling it as a mother would handle her child, and pulled it out. Mechanically turning on the room's only source of light, a dusty old lamp which barely dimly illuminated the room, he looked down at the object clasped in his palm.

It was a small framed picture of the Teen Titans, all of them, at a sunny day in Jump City's park. It was taken only months before Starfire's disappearance; about ten years ago, he reasoned. In the center, Beast Boy and Cyborg stood on either side of Raven. Beast Boy, unbeknownst to Raven, had been holding a "peace" sign behind her purple head. But since Raven was so much taller than him, he'd had to reach all the way around her to get it in the picture without noticing. But Raven, a characteristic frown across her emotionless face, had turned just as the picture was being taken and her head ended up covering the first half of the gesture, accidentally making it look much more obscene than intended. Cyborg, on the other side, looked like he was about to kill Beast Boy. In fact, mere seconds after the picture had been taken, he nearly did. Raven, in her irritation at the two, had blown up the camera due to her emotion-driven powers. But for some odd reason she had managed to preserve the film.

Rich's face tried to crack into a smile; another memory clouded his mind. He shook it off and gazed at the other figures in the picture, finally opening his mind to his most cherished yet most painful memories. Starfire had been "glomping" Robin at the time, her innocent jade eyes shining with an unearthly, elated glow under the bright sun, an animated smile lighting up her features, making her look like a real-life goddess. Robin remembered having been a bit irritated at the time, albeit he was smiling back, slightly shyly.

He smiled sadly, actually smiled this time, as he remembered his old friend. It was funny how, no matter what, Starfire somehow seemed to automatically rub off some of her effervescent joy to anyone in the room. He hadn't always appreciated it at the time, sometimes even resented it. He remembered, before she'd left, her talking about some Tamaranian holiday of one form or another.

The picture fell to the floor with an audible "clank!" Richard buried his face in his hands; his eyes stung, he'd long forgotten how to cry. He hadn't noticed then, taking for granted the one thing that he'd always cherished and adored.

"I'm so, so sorry…" He mumbled aloud, barely audibly, wishing now more than ever that she could hear him.

He stared out a single murky window and into the deserted winter streets below, his vision somnolent and faded. He thought he saw a glint of sparkling emerald catch his eye, but he pushed that thought away. _'Now I must really be going crazy…' _He thought morbidly, shaking it away. But his eyes jerked open as a frantic voice, accompanied by forlorn sobs, met his ears.

"Please, someone, _please_! I am in desperate need of assistance!" The possessor's voice chattered as she spoke; she was shivering violently.

Dick knew that voice. He flung his window open, thrusting his head outward. In the darkness, he could seen two sparkling green orbs only a little bit off illuminating the way for a young girl dressed in purple vinyl with fiery auburn hair, her slender arms wrapped around herself in desperate attempt to warm her underdressed body from the sinister cold.

"Please!" She cried once more, falling to her knees in desperation and utter hopelessness, confirming his suspicions.

_Starfire!_

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_Sooo, what do you think? Random, no? The next chapter will be a Raven chapter, should you guys click that liiiiiiiiiiitle purple box below...it beckons you..._


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